World’s most disturbing back-to-school shopping list. In Gardena, CA today, two kids get shot when another’s gun accidentally discharges in his backpack. The article talked a lot about having wands at school to detect firearms. Is it a given that kids go to school armed now? Is the question no longer, “Why did he have a gun?” but “Why aren’t there metal detectors?” That is very frightening to me.
Maybe it’s reality. I used to sub for a “low-performing school district” (translation: poor and minority). At one of the high schools, city police officers hung out at the cafeteria at lunch everyday. I was a bit taken aback at first. As the days wore on, they became part of the landscape.
I really don’t know what to make of this story. The comments I read covered the 2nd Amendment pretty well from both sides. One Conservative said that this is the reason why we should be armed. One Liberal asked if the NRA was happy now.
Personally, I don’t care if someone has a gun. Or even a stockpile to kill every living thing within a 5 mile radius. Most gun owners I’ve come in contact with are very responsible.
This goes beyond the 2nd Amendment. The article stated that fights were happening every day at that school. Have we become so desensitized to violence that fights every day don’t really faze us? Or are we becoming more violent as a society? Violence is all around us in the media. I’m not saying that we should censor it, but is that part of the problem? What can we do keep these things from happening? Is it going to get worse?
So many questions.
Spinny Liberal 
January 18th, 2011 at 8:45 PM
Nicely covered and a very fair representation of the issue! I think all of your questions at the end are very relevant to the kinds of conversations that need to be occurring on a regular basis.
My thoughts: What we need to discuss is why there isn’t stricter enforcement of the laws regarding age, mental health, and felony convictions that would restrict much of these problems that keep happening. Just because some people fear guns or gun ownership and want the 2nd Amendment to go away does not in any way, shape, or form mean that guns will go away. The people who would no longer be in possession of guns will be the ones who none of us needed to worry about… they were the law-abiding sane ones. Many of the remaining people with guns will be the untrusting ones… also not really a danger. But the ones that we know for a fact who will never turn in guns are the ones with bad intentions and those are the ones we must identify.
January 19th, 2011 at 5:39 AM
I heard on Fox this morning that some Nebraska State Senator wants it be legal for teachers to carry guns. I don’t agree with that – at all.
Let’s install metal detectors when needed if we’re truly worried about kids bringing guns to school. I would rather children be inconvenienced because of loose change and paperclips than to have some teacher come off the hinge and start shooting.
I support Second Amendment rights completely, but sometimes we take it a little too far.
January 19th, 2011 at 10:28 AM
Questioning – Exactly. I really believe anyone who is dead set on getting a gun, will. Legally or otherwise.
Terrance – OK, that is beyond scary. There were days that were so stressful in those classrooms that I wish I had a gun. To shoot myself. If a teacher in Nebraska felt homicidal…….ugh. This is not a good thing at all.